Scotland

So I am in scotland getting my masters...really what I am doing is putting adult life off for one more year until I can decide what to do with myself. Let's see about adding a picture, this should be a shot from my window, its kind of close in. I am still pretty bad with this camera. Maybe a few more later.

This has been nuts or Knee Deep in Graphic Novels

So, I moved to New York City for a month. My uncle offered me an interesting job and I needed to break up the last 3 months of my wait for Scotland, so I took the job. It has been crazy, and its almost over, between classes I've been taking and work I was alway to exhausted to type something out. So, I have some quetions...
1) Why do rich people think they are entitled to EVERYTHING?
2) Why do they think they deserve to get it now?
3) Why is 5 foot 7 always 3 inches too short?
4) When will I feel like I am living life, and not waiting for life to start?
5) Why don't I feel at home anywhere (surely someone else must have felt/feels like that/this)?
Feel free to answer 1 all of them or 3 of them, please do not and 2 of them or 4 of them, lets keep things odd.

Alright, Second half of my Rocky and Bullwinkle style title...

I have started reading the Sandman Series (obviously with book one) I picked up Neverwhere, the Graphic novel, inspired by Neil Giaman's novel, and I am halfway through... The Watchmen.

Now for my raitings...

1. Sandman Series, B on the verge of a B+ I liked it a lot, can't wait to read more of it. I loved how it lives in the DC universe meeting Martian ManHunter references to Superman, The Joker, and Batman, a Cameo by Scarecrow and a pinch of John Constantine made this a fun book I read in one sitting.

2.Neverwhere, D+, The novel was fantastic I loved it, but to be completely honest Mike Carey didn't do it justice and Glen Fabry, although his illustrations were absolutely beautiful ruined it. I have the distinct feeling he didn't even read Giaman's novel. He ruins the Lady Door making her look like a fucked up wonderwoman Slut with giant boobs, and the Marquis De Carabas, possibly my favorite character in all of Giaman's storys was botched beyond repair. He was a fucking shadow, yeah thats right black, no detail black he looked like a fucking ink stain. Nice Try guys, but how about you reissue this after READING THE GOD DAMN BOOK!

3. The Watchmen, B, I am absolutely loving it. The only reason it sits where it is in the event that the end it terrible, but knowing Alan Moore I doubt it. However, I am erring on the safe side.

Next Up...

1. Sin City, I figure some Frank Miller
2. Blankets
3. Sandman Book 2
4.

the Gospel according to Kirk....

It appears as if the wave of religious righteousness crashing over the United States has finally made its to B list has beens. Kirk Cameron (Growing Pains and a Shitload of Disney remakes that Kurt Russel was originally in) has picked up the bible, apparently, and has started thumping it all over the internet. If you don't believe me go to www.wayofthemaster.com yeah I know its sounds like some cheesey ass Steven Segal movie or perhaps a bad ass movie featuring Jet Li as Bruce Lee in his final kung-fu epic, but for real this time. Trust me its not it is most definitely Kirk "Mike Seever" Cameron telling you how to worship God. It gets better though, Cameron's website is all flashed out it has great design and double speak that would impress George Orwell himself. Seriously, he tells you in a matter of fact tone that unless you accept the way of the master you are going to hell, but you don't have to take Mike Seever's word for it he is only speaking for God. I am so excited that God decided, after all these years, to talk to us again, but I am shocked that out of all the theologians in the world he chose a 1980's pop culture icon who's fictional best friend was named Boner.

If getting your ass reemed out and told that your immortal soul will spend all of eternity in hell by a tvland douchebag over the internet is good enough, which it never is, for a small fee you can be told you are going to hell via DVD! Hell, why stop there for another small fee you can become an ass clown douchebag and recieve the complete set of WAY OF THE MASTER and become a conservative bible toting fuckhead willing to condem your own family because you are that righteous.

Alright so remember that part of the bible in which Jesus gets pissed because people are selling shit in the synagogue. Well this would seem to me as if Mike Seever has taken the religion out of the church onto the internet and slapped a price tag on salvation, I might have been stupid enough to fall for that once (thanks UnitedLifeChurch.com) but like thay say fool me once and....you won't fool me again eh he he he. Cameron uses propaganda in a way that makes the Communist and Nazi movements look like drooling toddlers. But I would like to end this by saying I live my life by 3 rules.

1. Treat others the way you want to be treated
2. Don't fake the funk on a nasty dunk
3. Never trust a person with two first names

So as much as I respect the theological perspectives of Kirk Cameron I just can't trust him.

8 things you don't know about me...

I have taken a look at the other people that Fermi tagged and I am going to have to say that like the other I am on end of chain so it goes no further. Well here goes...

1. I wrestled for 12 years.
I started when I was in kindergarten, I was very very small, 23lbs and I got picked on a lot my parents thought this would help with selfesteem. It didn't really but I found something I excelled at and by my sophomore year of high school I had been invited to the Junior Olympics twice. I never went (to many dollars and cents), but hey I was invited. I always wrestled lightweight which in middleschool was 80lbs and in high school 103lbs. I actually weighed 68lbs in middle school and the I didn't break 100 until my senior year. However, wrestling was far from great I am weight obsessive I weigh myself at least twice a day and the smell of windex makes me nervous.

2. I have Social Anxiety Disorder
My dad thought that I was lazy when I would refuse to call a stranger (job inquiries) or that I wouldn't go to the movies, birthday parties, family gatherings...well you get the idea. It wasn't until a very tragic year in high school that I was sent to a headshrinker and she diagnosed me. Its tough, it makes dates very difficult it also seems to isolate me on some level from any friends I make because dance clubs, college bars, and house parties that I don't know everyone at are on my blacklist. I don't think I will ever be able to handle a dance club, but I am getting better and alcohol does help, but man if I have a panic attack while drunk...its bad...so bad...

3. I have a bad case of wanderlust.
This would seem almost completely contradictory to the last one, but I like traveling and for some reason about a year ago I started to ache for it. As a result I am traveling to Scotland this septemeber under the guise of furthering my education. I want to see as much as I can before I have responsiblities that are more than a credit card payment and deffered student loans.

4. Comics, Cartoons, and Movies...
Regardless of the form they are given to me in I am a Superhero nut. I read comics every chance I get, but the feeling that comes off most comics stores scares me away so I usually get them from a friend of mine. I watch every watered down version they have thrown into cartoon X-Men, Spiderman, Fantastic Four, Dr. Strange, Silver Surfer, Batman, Justice League, and Superfriends. I seek out any movie remotely close to a Superhero fromt he obvious Marvel and DC movies to Unbreakable, Kill Bill, Pitch Black.

5. I am obessed with Jim Henson.
The first thing I do once I recieve my Masters in History (its scottish history but they don't have to know) is petitioning Brian Henson to allow me to do the most complete biography on Jim Henson to date. However until then I will continue to collect everything Henson, My prize piece is a cast autographed photo of FraggleRock. Jim Henson and awesome company are what have plunged me into the worlds of fantasy, science fiction, and even classical greek literature.

6. I am catholic.
I am what one considers a nonpracticing catholic. I had attended some sort of catholic education until I graduated college., which I would not trade ever, but I personally to me seeing two hundred people crowded in a room chanting the same thing takes away from religion. I would rather read something by St. Thomas Aquinas or C.S. Lewis and think to God, but that just me. I my favorite part of being nonpracticing is I still identify myself as catholic then I say nonpracticing, which always gets a "why aren't you practicing" to which I get to use the same witty retort over and over, "because after twenty years of catholic schooling I don't need to practice I am already pretty sweet at it."

7. Hopeless Romantic
My favorite books are Pride and Prejudice and Stardust. I am not sure if it actually existed but I want to meet that person that rocks me like the hurricane and never stops.

8. I am a pacifist.
I think that fighting is ridiculous, I know this seems as if it is contradicted by my 1st thing, but wrestling is more like dancing if you do it well. This might seem warped, but in high school I stood up to a bully I refused to relinquish the point I had made and he threatened physical harm and I let him hit me, I hit the ground and he kicked me a couple times, but once he saw that it wasn't going to affect me he gave up. There was something so satisfying about it that I decided that I would never stand down on something I believed and I would never resort to violence to further a point. However, the only struggle I have is in the event that someone I know its being attacked, I am not sure if subdueing a person considered a violent action, but I feel like I would have to to protect someone I love.

and because I said I would I am going to throw up a cat picture

Respecting the Fallen or Idolizing Violence?

Memorial day is a day when we are supposed to remember fallen soldiers. This I have no problem with, what I do have a problem the most common way this is celebrated (other than the drinking and cookouts, which are completely unrelated) are stories of fallen U.S. soldiers that valiantly answered the call of duty and paid the "ultimate price" for our freedom. I think there are two things fundementally wrong with this:

1. Our freedoms have not been under direct assault WW2, our comfort and economy has been assaulted the pockets of modern day robber barons have been assaulted. I know I know, but what about 911... 911 was a wake up call that brought us into a world that every other country had been living in for decades. I am not taking away from its savagery or the magnitude of tragedy, but we were a niave isolated nation. We should have taken that moment to step up to the world and show them that we are a nation that belongs to the world and fight terror all over the world; africa, asia, europe, here domestically, not just the middle east, which I am aware is both part of asia and africa. Instead we have bullrushed our way past the point of no return leaving us more isolated than before.

2. It is my humble opinion that to take away from Memorial Day what we should remember is that it was not just U.S. soldiers dying in Iraq and Afghanistan...It was not only U.S. soldiers dying in Vietnam and Korea...it was not just U.S. soldiers dying in Europe in the early part of the 20th century. Every person that died was a human being, thats what people need to understand...we need to stop villifying our enemies and putting ourselves on pedestals. We should take this day to remember that even our enemies wives, brothers, sisters, sons, daughters, fathers, and mothers feel the same pain we do when they are told that there husband, brother, father, or son won't be returning.


"Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies, in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and not clothed. This world in arms is not spending money alone. It is spending the sweat of its laborers, the genius of its scientists, the hopes of its children. This is not a way of life at all in any true sense. Under the cloud of threatening war, it is humanity hanging from a cross of iron."

-Dwight D. Eisenhower, From a speech before the American Society of Newspaper Editors, April 16, 1953

What ever happened to Socrates?

So, I have been reading a fair amount of Scottish philosophy in preparation for my masters program. When something struck me last night that scared me. In Adam Smith’s writings he discusses all of the benefits of capitalism, which boil down to true freedom in a sense that it has the most fluid social system allowing people to move from one class to the next and capitalism by nature produces more than it needs and creates an environment in which the even the most poor benefit. He said, “it is better to be a poor man in a rich country than a rich man in a poor country”, and to some effect this is true. However, Adam Ferguson has made a compelling point on the great disadvantages of capitalism. He believed that when you place a societal emphasis on making money and producing products, that morality and virtue bend to the will of the market. Adam Smith counters Ferguson’s ideas by saying that educating people in the history of humanity and the understanding of earlier cultural morality can prevent this lack of virtue from ever coming to fruition.

Now that I have said that I can explain what scares me. I think that not only is our government failing us, but our education system is also. We have a government which, lets be honest (regardless of party) is completely out of touch with the average person and for all intents and purposes is ran by businessmen. Then we have an educational system that is abandoning learning for completing benchmarks, there is a generation of kids that have facts memorized, but can’t think for themselves, and its easier for me to count people my age that have opinions on the world than the apathetic lazy asses that don’t care because it doesn’t effect their paycheck.

At least once a day I am asked what am I doing with my life, I reply by telling them I plan to go to graduate school to study Scottish political philosophy, without hesitation people smirk, furrow their eyebrows, frown, or even laugh at the idea, then the inevitable question, “What do you plan on doing with that…nothing” The question I have always wanted to ask in response was, I did not realize that learning was only worth something if it was vocational training. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t think I amck to life, I want to believe that peop smarter or better than anyone, but I do feel different. I feel different because I want to know that there is more than a paychele not only can do good, but will, but most of all I want to live a life dedicated to knowledge and understanding of what we are as a species.

Here's Mine...Show me yours

So one of my absolute favorite things in this world is music. So, Here is my list of my 12 favorite songs... in groups of the good, the great, and the best...

The Good:
Thrice - Red Sky: possibly the most thought provoking band in the last 15 years, this song in particular paints the image of a bleak future, but manages to instill hope that the future they are describing isn't necessary.

Snow Patrol - Open Your Eyes: I am a sucker for a good rock love song (not a ballad screw ballads) and this is an amazing one, grant it that stupid chasing cars song (its not bad, but definitely not great) is getting overplayed to the point where everyone whith a radio probably hates this band, but seriously Eyes Open isn't bad, and this song is pretty damn good. They do a good job of building to a climax without sticking it to you to earlier or making you wait to long for the pay off.

Jimmy Eat World -Lucky Denver Mint: Great song, and its a real litmis test to see if people bullshit understanding song lyrics or if they actually spend time to figure them out. Catchy as hell and it has a sweet dueling drum outro.

MC5 - Kick Out the Jams MOTHERFUCKERS!: anyone who thinks they are a punk will tell you that Ramones or Sex Pistols (piss on the sex pistols) where the creators of punk in 77 and anyone is actually a punk will tell you it was the MC5 in 1969 with the release of their live album Kick Out The Jams.

The Great:
AC/DC - Its a long way to the Top (if you want to rock n' roll): anyone with dillusions of rock stardom loves it unless you want to be in some loser Boy Band

The Who - Baba O'Riley: Before it was the intro to a CSI I am not sure if it actually is, but I am positive there are enough CSI spin offs to use every single The Who song. This song would give me chills and although the song in its entirety made little sense it had so many inspirational lyrics.

The Police - King of Pain: great use of lyrical metaphors comined with the dark mood supplied by the hollow guitar chords and the often empty yet polyrhythmic beats of Copeland, the police make an honest and creepy song...this is the one time I would ever believe that sting is the king of pain.

The Best:
U2 - Sunday Bloody Sunday: Anyone who has heard this song can tell that 20 years later bands are still ripping off U2's style and dipshits today eat it like its the newest thing ever (modest mouse and the killers are especially guilty of cashing in on their brilliance) I think that this particular song encapsulates everything that is right with music in the early 80's.

Pink Floyd - Wish You Were Here: This song is so brilliantly constructed that one would have to be souless in order not to feel a little sad while listening to this. What I found even more haunting was the recent live 8 performance...oh...my....God...Pink Floyd is amazing.

Buffalo Springfield - For What Its Worth: I loved this song the first time I heard it and I think I always will.

Van Morrison - Domino: has anyone every questioned how much Van Morrison manages to get away with vocally from his "shalala Beepop Dawipbop just like that" in Brown Eyed to him asking the listener to, "what this" in Domino. I love it!